"Shit," Stumblebum swore. "She's not answering her phone."

We needed Zephyr to get us onto a rooftop closer to the fight, that way I might actually have a chance of hitting the rampager without instantly dying. Yet, without any way to contact her, we were stuck here useless. This was where a psychic came in handy.

While she was still visible from our perch a long way off, I focused up a message to blast her with. It would be a nice test of my ability to hit things at a distance. The first blast I sent missed by a mile, of course. I had concentrated the psychic energy into far too thin of a beam, and although it did course-correct to some degree seeking the target I had mentally designated, it wasn't enough to salvage the shot. As she floated around in the sky, it was bound to miss, I realized. A wider beam did the job, however, as I could see her turn to look in our direction soon afterwards. A pale-yellow force had washed over her, sounding out the words, "We need a lift," since that was the simplest form of the truth.

She kept on fighting for a minute, seemingly making sure that her departure was not abrupt enough to be noticed. When she did finally make her way towards us, her aura was reluctant and miserable, but with a glimmer of optimism.

For my first outing as a hero, there was already a lot riding on my shoulders. Perhaps it was just nice to see Zephyr less furious at me.

She touched down on the roof and caught her breath for a time before any of us spoke. "You're looking better than you did," she said to me. "And you've got a mask on again. Did you manage to see Wonder Boy?"

Stumblebum answered on my behalf. "We did. He posted about it in chat like ten minutes ago."

"We've been on the fucking ropes nonstop with this guy since you two left, so I haven't exactly had time to check my phone. The only way we can even slow this motherfucker down is to knock him off of his feet and try to keep him there. It doesn't matter how strong you are if there's nothing to push off of, apparently. And so, as you can imagine, that's been a lot of work on my part, since I lay down the cushions of air."

"Yeah," Stumblebum nodded. "We're here now though, and we're charged up to take another swing at the psycho. I'm kind of getting out of steam if you know what I'm talking about. We really need you to get us in there manually so that I can keep my reserves. You game?"

"Alright, if that's the plan, then that's the plan. Whatever gets us another opening with that knockout blast. You first, Adrian?"

"No, him first," I pointed. It was safer that way.

The two of them took off with Stumblebum hanging awkwardly from her arms like an oversized toddler. Their trip above the city was slow and tedious, and I could see both of them getting more nervous as time went on, shifting to deeper shades of fear. For my part, I just stood and waited. Battle was full of a lot more waiting than I had expected.

The rampager was on the move and without Zephyr in the fight, Bombardment and his other flying friend were doing twice the work in laying down ground control. Every inch mattered right now. They must have been going for maximum shockwave to knock him off his feet, I could feel; to keep him juggled. Each one of Bombardment's hits fell heavy on my chest as they opted to go all out on a single small area of conflict rather than spread the fight's destruction with a mobile enemy.

Compared to this, what I felt earlier was nothing.

The shockwaves blasting out had shattered every window that I could see. People were screaming in the distance. Now, with how much of the city this fight had already covered, it was impossible for everyone to stay out of harm's way, and collateral damage was stacking up. To keep it minimized, the less movement the better, as coordinating an evacuation would take time that we didn't have.

It was kill or be killed.

At last, Zephyr came back on her own. She got behind me and hooked her arms under mine, saying, "Hang on tight." And with that, we were off to the skies.

She flew much lower and slower than Stumblebum and I had earlier, tossed on high by his teleport, but it was nonetheless still terrifying. If her grip slipped, I had nothing but nice, soft concrete to look forward to down below.

As we neared the end of our flight, I readied my first shot, being careful to restrain my energy so that I did not burn out too soon into this, my second round. The instant my feet hit the ground, I ran up to the edge of the roof and took aim to fire. Any hesitation would not go unpunished by the enemy. I gave Stumblebum only a passing acknowledgement that he would be at my side and then...

In the split second of aiming, I took in the battlefield. Charred to a crisp and cratered all over, it was hard to find my target right away. He was nothing but a white blur, jumping wildly from place to place as he avoided rockets and lasers coming down from above. No one dared to be on the ground with him at this point. All the remaining heroes who could not outmaneuver him had since left or been killed.

It was certain that I would miss on my first shot, but using it, I could draw his attention, slowing him down just enough for my second. I redirected most of my energy to the offhand with this in mind and fired away.

To my surprise, I hit him dead on.

The rampager stumbled and rolled to a stop out of his leap, looking dazed and confused. He failed to spot us right away, which gave me all the time that I needed for my plan. The second hand was raised up and a more powerful strike was delivered.

Except this time, I missed.

The yellow blast dissipated into the dirt beside the rampager's foot, immediately drawing his eye back to its source. With a wicked grin he shouted out, "There you are!"

I'm using my offhand, I realized. The nervous connection isn't as strong!

The rampager flew in a single bound.

"Shit!" Stumblebum swore and tackled me down. The concrete right next to us was torn away as we entered a rapid teleport to safety. Both of us came out on a distant rooftop as my head slammed into the ground, terror in our veins.

"T-thanks," I said.

"Don't thank me," he snapped back, trying to stay quiet. "If his aim had been any better, you'd be dead. I missed my timing back there.”

He was right. I'd seen the rampager's bloody hands burst up through the ground. If luck were different, Stumblebum might have come out the other side with that having been my skull.

It pissed me off, and I used that energy to prime up, this time with my right hand.

As I came back up, the rampager was exactly where I expected him to be, standing on the previous rooftop scanning for our bodies. He had no chance to dodge what came next.

Crack!

My power went off with an audible bang, landing fast and true on its mark. Reams of electric froth sputtered over his body, and he shuttered in place. I watched his aura go from green to dark yellow on impact, but not disappear as I thought it had done before. Bombardment was a seasoned hero with his eye on all of this. He was never one to miss his timing, and his attack followed suit on the next beat, knocking me flat on my back with its force.

Fire and deafening noise flooded up into the sky and blocked out the sun. The buildings across the street no longer existed. The ground where the monster had stood was vaporized. All with one hit.

In the chaos I couldn't see a damn thing. I stood to full height with Stumblebum at my side, searching for any sign of the rampager's aura. Without closing my eyes, all color was lost in the inferno. God knew I wasn't about to close my eyes until I knew for sure things were safe, though.

A call went out, "No more games!"

There was a rush of hot air and when I turned to my side, Stumblebum was gone. Well, everything but his shoes. I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck then, and before I knew what I was doing, I hit the deck as fast as I could. There was another rush of hot air that passed over me this time, and I quickly stood and looked around.

What the hell?

Stumblebum popped back into existence right where he had been standing. He gasped for breath and felt of his chest, saying, "Where did I go? Did I go somewhere?"

Just as soon as he had come back to life, he went away again. Unlike when it happened before, however, I was ready at attention to witness it.

The rampager vaulted over the building and decimated Stumblebum at the midsection, piercing both hands through his chest and carrying him on for the rest of his flight path. It all happened so fast that before I had been dumbstruck, whereas now I was simply spattered with gore.

Had I dodged the same leap meant for me?

The rampager jumped up and onto the roof again, and his face was bright red in the glow of the fire stretching high into the sky behind us. I turned to him and swallowed hard in fear. Stumblebum wasn't here to save me. It was one on one. But I was prepared.

From the very second I hit the ground, I had been charging up for my next attack.

"You're quite the pain!" He yelled as he charged forward laughing, arms outstretched for the kill.

I got to my feet with finger-gun readied. Riding high on the kick that Wonder Boy had given me, I went for more power now than I had in all my previous blasts combined.

This was all or nothing.

My hand raised to fire and suddenly, the rampager dropped dead where he'd stood. I barely managed to keep the energy I built up from escaping as I watched his body clatter to the floor. It was not because of anything I did, though. No, he had dropped at the sight of my attack all on his own.

Whatever kind of trick this was, it didn’t compute. His aura was nonexistent. There was no mind at all the rampager’s body, as if it had been sent away at will.

Right then, Stumblebum came back. He teleported in a few meters away and ran up to get me. "Come on!" He was ready to take us both out of here while he still had the power left to do it.

But something wasn't right here. We were missing something crucial.

I motioned for him to wait, but I couldn't hold the energy I had gathered anymore. If I released it now, I would surely black out. Little by little, I tried to spread it back out through my body, supercharging my every nerve. There was no real way to reabsorb it, but as I crouched down in pain on the roof and strained to contain it, I at least managed that much.

"You hit him, now come on! Bombardment has to finish it, Adrian!"

I tried to protest, but Stumblebum had made up his mind. Right as he was going to teleport me though, I reached out first. With just the tiniest dash of the energy I had stored, I touched him in the side and forced him to recoil. He danced back like he'd touched a live wire, not visibly hurt, just surprised.

"I didn't hit him!" I projected. "It's a trick. And now he's coming back. Look!"

A mind returned to the rampager as if turned on with the flip of a light switch. His strangely artificial nervous system refilled his body and he lurched to his feet, no smile to be seen anymore, just grim malice and bloodlust. He looked at us both. He knew that we could get away, but it didn’t matter. He had successfully subverted my attack.

Finally, I understood.

Pain wouldn't work. Mind control wouldn't work. But we could still beat him.

I only had to touch him.